ALEX McLeish says Garry O’Connor still faces a battle to get back into first-team contention despite scoring a late winner in Birmingham’s 3-2 win over a Hong Kong XI yesterday.

Alex McLeish says Garry O’Connor still faces a battle to get back into first-team contention []

O’Connor was sidelined for the majority of last season following a double hip operation, but was handed a new six-month deal with an option of a further six.

O’Connor, 27, was introduced during the second half of the friendly at Hong Kong Stadium and scored two minutes from the end following Nikola Zigic’s lay-off.

Birmingham boss McLeish said: “Garry has a little bit to go. He has come back from career-threatening injuries, has had two hip injuries, two operations at the same time which is quite unheard of for footballers, so he has got a big battle ahead of him.

“We decided to be honourable and give Garry six months to prove that he is over the injuries.

“He is a very, very good finisher with both feet and he’s decent in the air. If he can get opportunities, then of course he can be an asset to us.

“He struggled to get into the game, but that’s his first game for a long, long time and to score the winning goal with a really nice finish will give him a lot of confidence.”

Birmingham produced a disjointed display in the opening 45 minutes and were 2-1 down before a raft of changes at the interval saw an improvement.

But McLeish was unconcerned with his side’s display, saying he expected them to struggle in the Hong Kong heat. “It’s all about getting the players fit. we got a tougher game than perhaps we expected,” said McLeish, who is close to agreeing a new three-year contract.

“At this stage performance is not the most important thing. There were some good things, some not so good, but we’re happy to win. We’re not fit enough yet. They were a little bit sharper in the first half but we’re not nearly at a level of fitness, nowhere near it.

“Pre-season games are rarely easy unless you hand-pick things and we weren’t able to. We were given the games by people at our club and we said we will face tough opposition. I knew we wouldn’t be sharp enough, we wouldn’t quite have the legs yet.”